Wednesday, June 22, 2005

Let's Talk Flooding...

Even though the city council is backing away from redevelopment this whole flooding thing is really sticking in my craw. Let's break it down:

The only rational reason for declaring Leucadia blighted is our flooding problem.

Flood = Blight

If it only rains on average 2 weeks of the year, are we blighted a full 52 weeks a year?

Since it was the city that made the flooding worse than ever...well, I just don't know what to say. This is something that nobody wants to touch with a ten foot pole, the fact that our 4.8 million drainage system makes the flooding worse and nobody is holding the contractor accountable. I mean, shucks.

The big Catch-22 at the Monday night meeting was that the council didn't want to talk about flooding, but flooding is the only thing that could possibly make Leucadia blighted. I confess, that made me a little crazy.

30 million bucks is the figure we hear the most often about how much it will take to fix the flooding once and for all (yeah right). By now we've all heard Mr. Caldwell's excellent question, "Why does San Diego pay 1 million per mile when we have to pay 25 million per mile? What is the extra 24 million for?"No-one has an answer to this. At the Monday night meeting after this question was poised the city council asked the city manager and then the city manager fingered the city engineer lurking in the back and the color in the city engineer's face drained and turned white and he pretty much got the hell out of there.

About the flooding. Man, are we all just being big wusses about this? I think Jim Bond pointed our that maybe the citizens of Leucadia might be happier just trying to deal with it.

Is it cheaper in the long run just to pay a crew to show up when it rains and pump the water away? How much did we spend last winter, the rainiest winter in 100 years? (20 inches, whew!) Assuming it won't rain that hard again for another 100 years, is cherry picking the rainy days more cost effective than installing the 30 million drainage? Which by the way, will really tie up traffic on the coast highway for weeks, maybe months?

Flooding is not a unique problem.

Are we Leucadians whining about the flooding too much? It's not like people's homes and cars are washing down the coast highway. Nobody has drowned. Maybe we can just take it on the chin once and awhile?Maybe the city could just pay Carpet Bob to replace everyone's carpet every spring, that would probably be cheaper.

Should all future structures be built on stilts?

I should note that my home does not get flooded out (but my roof leaks).

Someone left a comment on an earlier post that it would be cheaper to hire the illegal aliens from Encinitas Blvd. to form a bucket brigade whenever it rains. I have to admit that really slayed me.

6 comments:

They don't want to talk about the storm drain fiasco (know as the Pasco fiasco in Leucadia) because the responsibility is on the Council. Shame on them for hiring a politcally connected insider without the proper qualifications and wasting 5 mil of our money.

We should not trust this Council.

(I don't put my real name down because this Council has some very vindictive members... )

JPI think the best solution to the flooding problemwould be to seize the properties of the home ownersthat are complaining of their houses flooding,(who likes whining Yuppies anyway?) and bulldozethem. Plant some trees & problems solved.No one uses the park except Bums & Drug Addicts.The flooding is kind of a well needed cleansing process.Jon

Scary Supreme Court ruling decided today on eminent domain. New London CT condemned private houses for a Phizer office building. Even though the homes and businesses were not particularly blighted and actually the business was thriving the public good of creating more tax revenue for the city outweighed the private property rights. The only way to fight the city is to not allow them to create a redevelopment agency. Once it is created thay have absolute power and a Supreme Court precedence to boot. We need all of Leucadians to know that they are threatened by eminent domain because we learned at that meeting that the North Specific Corridor is not enough land for the City to meet their financial goals and that more parcels of land (1,000 and up) would be necessary...Neptune with collapsing bluffs (blight) beware!

Yes, scary ruling on eminent domain. We need to contact someone in Half Moon Bay or Venice Beach L.A. to find wording for a petition. If we get 10% of voters (within proposed blighted area or citywide?), we can force this issue of "blightation" onto a ballot.

The fact is, by declaring us blighted, the government has an easier road to tow in getting eminent domain. Do not believe that power would not be exercised.

How many times did the powers that were break their word to the natives? Redevelopment in Leucadia should be done by those property owners that choose to do so. We do not need another agency. We have enough "tools."

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About Leucadia

Leucadia is a funky little beach community located in North San Diego county in southern California. Leucadia is the north section of the city of Encinitas.

English spiritualists settled the small coastal community of Leucadia in 1870, and are reputed to have danced, in diaphanous white robes in the little Roadside Park (Leucadia Blvd and Hwy 101).

The spiritualists are the reason so many of the streets are named after Greek gods and goddesses. Leucadia is Greek for "a sheltered place." Heritage Eucalyptus trees, planted in the 1880s, still grace the highway. When President Roosevelt passed through Leucadia in an open car during the Depression, local children climbed the Eucalyptus trees to wave to him.

Change happens slowly in this nostalgic little California beach town. In lieu of fast food restaurants and franchise chain stores, Leucadia has two miles of Mom 'n Pop businesses, and that's the way everyone likes it. The town war cry is "Keep Leucadia Funky."

Leucadia played an active role in the rebirth of the classic Highway 101 shield, restored in 1997, and was part of the successful 101 Campaign to have Highway 101 declared an historic route.

Leucadia is experiencing growing pains and culture clash in these first decades of the 21st century...